31 Apps, Games, and Utilities to Enhance Your Chrome Experience!

Reading

Readability

There’s a whole lot of information available on the internet, just waiting to be devoured. Unfortunately, a lot of it’s damn hard to read. Often set in a terrible font or against the backdrop of eye-scarring page design an online article, no matter how awesome the content, can be difficult, if not impossible to read. Fortunately for Firefox and Chrome users, Readability is here to save the day... as well as your eyes and sanity.

As its name suggests, Readability is an extension designed to make the web more readable. The extension provides users with the ability to strip any web-based article they’re perusing of all page design, advertisements and other distractions, leaving nothing but story-pertinent text and photos to make for a superior screen-borne reading experience. If that’s not enough for you, Readability also offers the option to save an article to read later, as well as the ability to send your content to a Kindle device.

Each of these features can be accessed via user-mappable keyboard shortcuts, which in our humble opinion makes this extension one of the best friends any hardcore computer rocking reader could ever hope for.

Popular Science Magazine Chrome Edition

Whoever said that nobody likes a know-it-all likely wasn’t all that smart. There’s no shame in cramming your noodle full of as much data as humanly possible, and there’s a lot of joy to be found in thrashing an opponent Texas-style during an old school barroom trivia throw-down. But who has the time these days to tackle anything close to the amount of book learning required to become a Master or Intellectual Disaster? No one. Fortunately, Popular Science Magazine's Chrome Edition Web App is here to spoon-feed you all the cool factoids you’ll ever need to intellectually dominate/alienate your friends and loved ones.

Designed specifically for use with Google’s Chrome browser, the Popular Science Magazine Web App is a multimedia feast for the eyes and ears that’s sure to appeal to most anyone. Updated on a semi-regular basis, the application boasts Popular Science’s most fascinating content of the past year, augmenting it with interactive video and layered imaging, making for a great read that grabs you by the collar and won’t let go. Easily navigated using either your keyboard or a mouse, the app is well suited to users of all ages, no matter whether they prefer to use keyboard shortcuts or the simplicity of pointing and clicking.

There’s even an option to share the stories that you dig via Twitter Facebook, or email, making it a cinch to spread the word that you are indeed an individual who takes their scientific education seriously, and should not be trifled with.

Kindle Cloud Reader

When there’s twenty minutes left until the end of the work day and you can’t stand the thought of crunching another number, there’s nothing better than obliterating any chance you might have had at being productive with a little light reading from fine sites like--dare we say it--PC Gamer or Maximum PC. That said, there’s also times when nothing else will do but to dig your teeth into the meat of a good book. If you neglected to tuck a paperback, e-reader or tablet into your bag, Amazon and Google have you have you covered, thanks to Kindle Cloud Reader, our Chrome Web App of the Week.

Kindle Cloud Reader provides users with the ability to access their library of Kindle books through their PC (as well as Linux and Mac, if you must), without having to install any additional applications, as well as any bookmarks or notes you may have. In addition being able to scarf down the tomes you already own, it’s also possible to purchase new content from Amazon’s constantly growing collection of over 950,000 books.

Best of all, Kindle Cloud Reader has been designed to let you take your literary show on the road, making it easy to download content for offline reading. While it might not be as portable as a Kindle reader or smartphone, having your favorite books available to read on your laptop during your next cross country flight is nothing but win.

20 Things I Learned About Browsers & The Web

There's no shame in not understanding how a computer does what it does. Then again, folks shouldn't feel too good about it either. As desktops, tablets, and laptops become more and more complex, it's not always easy to understand exactly what does what under the hood. The same goes for the internet: Cookies? Malware? Phishing? While the comprehension of topics like these might be second nature to many Maximum PC readers, the same can't always be said for our partners, acquaintances, or family. The next time one of your technologically-impaired inner circle asks you a question about the internet or online security, consider directing them 20 Things I Learned About Browsers & The Web, our Chrome Web App of the Week.

Developed by Google and designed to read like a story book, 20 Things I Learned About Browsers & The Web explains a wide variety of internet and browser-related topics in plain English, making concepts such as HTML, online identities and cloud computing less intimidating. The text is broken down into 20 chapters, each covering a unique topic. The book can be read from end to end, or consumed in smaller sips of specific information as needed.

To make sure that 20 Things I Learned About Browsers & The Web reaches its intended audience, Google was thoughtful enough to include a number of sharing options including links for Facebook, Twitter as well as--and this is kicking it old school--print it out. If your parents still haven't figured out how to program their DVD player's clock or even worse, still call you for advice on how to work their VCR, this app is gonna be your BFF from the get-go.

Cooliris

Microsoft is everywhere. One form or another of Windows can be found on most computers in the world today. Redmond is rocking most people’s work rigs and if you’re a serious gamer, the odds very good that your last computer wasn’t designed in Cupertino. For most folks, software conformity is a given. They accept that with the exception of their wallpaper, their graphical user interface most likely is identical to that of their neighbors. A few of us however, refuse to fall into line, preferring instead to tweak, preen and modify the looks of our Windows GUI until it can hardly be recognized as such. If you’re interested in taking a first bold step into something a little snazzier than your computer’s stock aesthetics have to offer, you could do a lot worse than downloading Cooliris.

Available to both Explorer, Chrome and Firefox users, Cooliris not only pretties up your browser with some sweet, modern 3D visuals, it also makes your browsing a more visual visceral experience. Instead of trawling yards of search returns comprised of text, CoolIris gives users something pretty to look at, and provides search results in a scrolling wall of images, video and headers, designed to make hunting down a topic a pleasure.

The extension even offers a number of channels, such as news, entrainment and games, ensuring that it’s not just another pretty face, but also a respectable information aggregator to boot.

Comments

Outrageous headlines? Bribery? Dead whistle blowers? seedy and sordid? This makes me want to turn on my DirecTV account and subscribe to Murdoch stations just to see what might happen next. Maybe I'll read some of his publications. Nah, I'll keep my useless tv off and keep an eye on everything and make my own opinions.

What a stupid APP. And the people that need it in order to not see something they don't want to see? Even dumber. I Can't remember ever surfing and ACCIDENTALLY seeing a hot blond from fox or any of the ugly guys for that matter.

I'm Always amazed at how the freaks on the right and the left need to isolate themselves from differing opinions and call it BOYCOTT or PROTEST.

WOW. I just had a flashback to my hardcore lefty days when cable filters to filter out fox were being sold. The things people will waste $19 to $30 on. That was good weed money. lol. Oh yes Mine wasn't spent on a filter. I wish Earth day was still Bob Marley day. Oops getting off track. This app sucks.

I think it's less about not seeing Murdoch Media websites, and more about not giving them any associated ad-revenue & page visits, especially when it comes to items that are integrated into other pages.

Chrometophone is kind of nice. Click the icon in the browser, and the link you're viewing on your PC immediately opens on your phone. Send a phone number from the browser and your phone pulls up a dialer and all you have to do is press 'call.' Send a map and it'll open your GPS app. Very surprised you didn't include it.